In The Sacrifice, Alexander's (Erland Josephson) birthday
party is interrupted by news that World War III has begun and mankind is hours
away from annihilation. To avoid war, Alexander promises to God that he'll
sacrifice all he has -- even his son.

***

Sixtyish philosopher Alexander (Erland Josephson) lives in a
beautiful house on an island off Sweden’s Baltic coast, with English wife
Adelaide (Susan Fleetwood), teenage daughter Julia (Valerie Maitesse) and young
son, known only as Gossen, or “Little Man” (Tommy Kjellvqist). It’s Alexander’s
birthday, and he’s visited by eccentric bicycling postman Otto (Allan Erdawll)
and smug doctor Viktor (Sven Wollter), who is “carrying on” with Adelaide. Out
of the blue, a nuclear war is announced on TV - the telephones and electricity
are cut off, and the air is filled with the deafening roar of passing jets. All
looks bleak - but then Alexander fervently prays, asking God to avert the
impending apocalypse, in return offering to turn his back on his home and
family, and take a vow of silence. Next morning, he wakes to find that, somehow,
the threat of annihilation has been lifted - and now it’s up to him to keep his
side of the bargain...

The Sacrifice is like a compendium of all the ideas (faith, role of
artist, power of nature, virtue of childhood) and images (love as levitation, a
boy standing by a tree) from his previous six films. As usual, there’s a
baffling rush of philosophical debate, stitched together with some of the most
astonishing shots in all cinema. Watching this long film is an intermittently
dazzling experience, but also somewhat unsatisfying. Just how much of what we’re
watching is real, and how much is Alexander’s hallucination - we’re given clues
along the way, such a bicycle being parked in a certain way, only to reappear in
a slightly different place later on - is open to question. In Tarkovsky’s films,
dreams are nothing if not cinematic. But piecing together the director’s
“intention” seems to be missing the point.

NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

ADDITION: Kino (4K Restored) - Region 'A' Blu-ray
- April 2018:
Kino's new transfer exhibits a strong green-leaning in many sequences.
Support of grain and detail is a significant upgrade over their previous
release. Tarkovsky's final film is presented here in a new 4k restoration. Any
previous DNR or edge enhancement is not present. The image is no longer waxy and
has more of a, pleasing, film-like texture. The case says "Swedish Film
Institute" and most of the color palette shows richer, deeper hues. The
green cast is less noticeable in-motion where the film actually looks fabulous.

Kino presents the film in 2.0 Mono DTS-HD (24-bit). Upon listening to this track
and the PCM track on the previous Kino, I would have to say that they sound very
similar. Although there is no large discernable difference with the new track, I
believe that the lower end was slightly more prominent. The music in The
Sacrifice used: Bach's Matthäus-Passion: Erbarme Dich and pieces of
The Everest Record Group (Shingetsu, Nezasa No Shirabe, Dai-Bosatsu)
are well supported by the lossless. The film is in Swedish with English
subtitles and, unlike their first BD of the film, the Blu-ray
disc is Region 'A'-locked.

The second DVD is the previously released 102-minute documentary "Directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky". There is a new audio commentary with Layla
Alexander-Garrett that is different from the one available on the Artificial
Eye. A new 32-minute interview with Michal Leszczylowski (editor of THE
SACRIFICE and director of DIRECTED BY ANDREI TARKOVSKY) is presented
here as well. This is a very revealing interview, with Leszczylowski discussing
the various aspects of working with Tarkovsky at the end of his life and career.
Also included is a 20-page booklet featuring excerpts from Andrei Tarkovsky's
diaries and an essay by Robert Bird (author of Andrei Tarkovsky: Elements of
Cinema.)

Tarkovsky fans were very pleased about the announcement of the 4K-restored
transfer of "The Sacrifice". It has a new commentary that is worth
exploring and the new interview with Leszczylowski is insightful. Kino have
better preserved the film on digital than their first release without any of the
noticeable edge-enhancement or DNR of previous editions. The color disparity
will be a personal preference. The film is... a masterpiece.

Colin Zavitz

ADDITION: Artificial Eye - Region 'B' Blu-ray
- September 2016:
Curzon / Artificial Eye provide another two-Blu-ray
package for one of their new Tarkovsky film-to-1080P release - one disc
for the feature a second for the extras. The Sacrifice
could be from The Swedish Film Institute source(?!) although does not
resemble that 2004 DVD's color scheme - nor the Kino Blu-ray.

Sebastian tells us in email "Hi. I read your review about The Sacrifice (Offret)
and wanted to give you some information about the current state for masters.
In the late 90s the film was transferred in order to make a new master for 35mm
distribution and home video. It hit VHS in Sweden in 1999 but wasn't on DVD
until 2004, which is the SFI DVD.

In 2012, SFI began their digitizing project with a goal of restoring at least
100 films per year since many Swedish films have been treated very badly on home
video. Offret was their first attempt based on the high demand of the film and
although the final master was most likely a 2K DI, it was probably the last film
by SFI to get a 35mm print. It was shown on Cinemateket in Stockholm in October
of 2013 as a part of their 50 year anniversary.

Barely one and a half-year earlier, the 90s master was shown on 35mm there as
well as a part of the Erland Josephson memorial. I attended at both and they are
very similar in appearance though I will say that the 2012 restoration has a
calmer, more filmic look. Both of them works but I'm glad that we've gotten the
later master for Blu-Ray.

Should also be noted that according to the Swedish translation of Martyrolog,
Tarkovsky points out in the very last sentence of his diaries that the negative
was so cut that it was practically useless. If this is the case I'd guess that
both masters are based on the IP considering how well archived most films are at
SFI." (Thanks Sebastian!)

Michael Brooke on our
FB page says "I saw the film several times in 35mm in the late 1980s, and
the Artificial Eye colours look closest to what I remember. (Mind you, they were
the UK distributors back then as well...). The Kino looks too bright, and too
greenish - the sky in the opening shot simply looks wrong to me, as I remember
there being a much greater distinction between blue sky and green grass."

Trying to remain objective in analyzing this HD video transfer - the Artificial
Eye image most resembles the Japanese Imagica SD in terms of color and contrast.
It is dark and frequently looks very green. The UK 1080P shows the most
information in the frame. Flesh tones are very cool (same as
Nostalghia.) It doesn't have the egregious edge-enhancement that
the Kino Blu-ray shows. The
AE is quite grainy and also shows some noise, I think. It looks solid
in-motion and I enjoyed my viewing - if only for the different digital
interpretation. Some may lean to the Kino color scheme - but may also be
deterred by the thinness and EE.

Tarkovsky's selection of music includes J.S. Bach - Matthäus-Passion: Erbarme
Dich sung beautifully by Julia Hamari as well as performances by
Watazumido-Shuso (Hotchiku flöjt). Artificial Eye's linear PCM is less robust
than the Kino (and 16-bit as opposed to 24) but the audio still sounds
impressive if less rich and deep. There are optional English subtitles on AE's
region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

Artificial Eye add a new Commentary by Layla Alexander-Garrett author of
Andrei Tarkovsky: The Collector of Dreams and
Andrei Tarkovsky: a Photographic Chronicle of the Making of the Sacrifice.
She graduated in Film Studies from Stockholm University and worked as an
interpreter on The Sacrifice giving her invaluable insight into the
production. She also arranges Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Paradjanov festival
retrospectives in London. On the second Blu-ray
AE again include the brief Film Psychoanalyst Mary Wild Introduction and part 7
of her visual essays - this one entitled The Sacrifice - Disharmony and the
Ideal - running over a dozen minutes. There is another visual essay (some
may have seen on YouTube) by Lewis Bond - Andrei Tarkovsky's Poetic Harmony
- often in the director's own words. In it Tarkovsky denies drawing any
inspiration from similarly respected filmmakers — Bresson, Antonioni, Bergman,
Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, “I have no desire to imitate any of them” and is
very well-made - it runs 15-minutes. Although I don't have it yet, I presume
this set to include another 36 page liner notes booklet.

I'll say it again - it is good to have options. I have no idea which image
transfer is most accurate to the theatrical film The Sacrifice. I do,
greatly, appreciate the AE Blu-ray
supplements - commentary etc. Another Tarkovsky masterpiece.

***

ADDITION:
Region FREE - Blu-ray
- June 11':

I must say this is
very impressive. In comparison to all the SD-DVD
versions this new Kino, dual-layered, 1080P transfer is
a revelation. It is soft-palette, extremely more
detailed and even showcases some depth. Tarkovsky fans
may swoon at the image quality. I won't say the hi-def
representation is perfect - there are some, previously
unnoticed hues (pink instead of white etc.), flesh tones
can, at times, be warmer but other contrast is superior
and I expect that this is accurate (or rather, more
accurate than even the SFI DVD.) Unfortunately, there are edge enhancement halos and
may be part of the print used!

Audio is given the lossless treatment but stays original
with a 2.0 channel linear PCM track at 2304 kbps. The
soundtrack with Bach's "Matthäus-Passion: Erbarme
Dich" and Watazumido-Shuso performed music is
crisp, lilting and sounds wonderfully clean. Dialogue
has moments where I felt sync may have been off but if
my memory is correct this was similar to the DVDs. There
are optional English subtitles and disc is a Region FREEBlu-ray.

No extras on the feature disc but there is an included
single-layered DVD with the 1 1/2 hour 'Directed By
Andrei Tarkovsky' (as as an extra on the 2000 KIno
DVD and 2004 Swedish Film Institute disc.) The included
DVD has trailers and 2 galleries, of source, in SD.

I was out to dinner once with a friend who was choosing
a bottle of wine that was too early to be enjoyed. The
waiter, who was one of the owners, knew this, but simply
stated "How can we resist?" in a charming French
accent while sporting a broad smile. I'm sure many
serious cinema devotees will feel this way about Kino's
Blu-ray of
Tarkovsky's last film, The Sacrifice. This is
despite the edge-enhancement - if you arte sensitive to
it - then you will be distracted.

***

ADDITION: (ENTER ONE - Region 3- NTSC) - October 05' -
This Enter One transfer is quite good, excepting that it is not progressive and
is most likely from a PAL source. It has a bit of a greenish haze, but its seems
as sharp as the SFI edition. The subtitles are weak, but not fatally so - only a
few instances of incorrect spelling or grammar (see below). Nothing really
changes in our voting but I am not as disappointed with the Enter One as I was
expecting to be, although the audio is weak not quite as flawed as in the ENTER
ONE Nostalghia.

NOTE: Please excuse that this is an older comparison and
some of the captures are not exact frames. It still should be fairly
obvious as to the caliber of each image's release.

***

ADDITION (SFI Region 2- PAL ) - February 2004It's great to see a new and superior transfer come along. The Swedish
Film Institutes sharpness is easily the best, but where they really
shine is in the contrast department. This is the first time this film
has looked this theatrically accurate on DVD. I see no apparent digital
manipulation, saturation or contrast boosting that is evident on all the
other releases. It seems to have no significant cropping either. The
Extras include the "Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky" documentary as well as
a slideshow entitled "Memories of Tarkovskij". This is our choice as the
definitive version on DVD at present. None of the other three releases
are acceptable. The best one of the poorer lot is in my opinion the
Japanese Cinefil/Imagica release, with its faithful representation of
color and contrast. (See this Nostalghia.com article for a more complete
discussion.)

Kino version is video
sourced, that is easily spotted. There are numerous instances of
analogue chroma noise: look at the tree-top on capture #1, or the
table-cloth on capture #4 (to the right of the question mark), or
the table-cloth on the last capture, under the back of the chair.

Andrey Diment

What Gary has said above
is correct; the SFI release is the one to own. There is one big
problem with the Japanese disc: it is Letterboxed. Some will
also regret the fact that it does not come with English subtitles.
Some Scandinavians among us appreciate the fact that the Japanese
subtitles can be turned off, as the English subtitles on the other
NTSC release (Kino) are ingrained. The Kino release is
Letterboxed as well, and suffers from the same brightness/contrast
problems that mar the Artificial Eye release. The Artificial
Eye disc is the only anamorphic presentation of the film currently
available on DVD. Its video encoding is however seriously
flawed, resulting in a blurry image. Compare for example the caption
beneath the icon painting of Saint Paraskeva Pjatnitsa shown below.
Neither caption is actually readable, of course, but the Artificial
Eye version at the bottom is clearly rendered more blurry than the
Kino version immediately above. The Nostalghia.com article
referenced above goes into more detail on this issue.